Jump to section
7 benefits of somatic coaching
Can somatic coaching benefit you in the workplace?
What to expect in a somatic coaching session
How it works
Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.
Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.
We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.
Products
Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.
Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.
Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.
Solutions
Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.
Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.
Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.
Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.
What is coaching?
Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.
Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.
Types of Coaching
Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.
Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.
Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.
Library
Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.
Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.
View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.
EN - US
For Business
How it works
Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.
Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.
We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.
Products
Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.
Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.
Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.
Solutions
Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.
Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.
Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.
Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.
Customers
See how innovative organizations use BetterUp to build a thriving workforce.
Discover how BetterUp measurably impacts key business outcomes for organizations like yours.
For Individuals
What is coaching?
Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.
Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.
Types of Coaching
Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.
Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.
Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.
Resources
Library
Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.
Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.
View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.
Blog
The latest insights and ideas for building a high-performing workplace.
BetterUp Briefing
The online magazine that helps you understand tomorrow's workforce trends, today.
Research
Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more.
Founded in 2022 to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance
Jump to section
7 benefits of somatic coaching
Can somatic coaching benefit you in the workplace?
What to expect in a somatic coaching session
Do you really know yourself, or is the inner you a stranger?
You’re the sum of many parts. And although you may be unaware of your physical, emotional, and mental habits, they come together to inform every single one of your decisions and interactions.
If you find yourself acting impulsively or constantly questioning your decisions, it may be a sign that you need to take back control. Consider somatic coaching, a specialized practice aimed at deepening your connection with your cognitive and physical responses and unraveling the intricacies of what drives you.
Whether you're navigating a stressful situation or simply seeking to grow your self-awareness, a skilled professional can guide you on a transformative journey to reshape your relationship with your thoughts and feelings. Let’s explore the ins and outs of coaching the inner you.
Somatic coaching helps you integrate the mind and body to facilitate growth and development. The name originates from the Greek word “soma,” meaning “of the body.”
This coaching niche promotes an understanding of how knowledge and experience combine to inform your capabilities. Somatic techniques help you build self-awareness around your physical, emotional, and mental patterns, creating a more integrative approach to transformative change.
You can apply somatic approaches to professional and personal development goals. For instance, if you want to boost your leadership skills, a somatic coach can help you practice breathing and power poses to convey strength or improve your thought patterns to develop self-confidence.
At BetterUp, we advocate for a Whole Person approach to human transformation through personal growth, social bonding, mental fitness, and professional development. Change isn’t easy. But if you’re determined to put in the necessary work, we can help you build the tools to build the best version of yourself.
Somatic learning aims to show you how your experiences, emotions, and traumas manifest in everyday actions and decisions so you can embark on a healing journey. Let’s dig deeper into seven ways somatic coaching can improve your well-being:
Mental clarity: You likely don’t fully understand the mental hang-ups or habits that guide your actions and reactions. Somatic coaches employ visualization and mind-body techniques to help you be more present, such as mindful breathing, intention setting, and grounding exercises.
This new skill set can help you sharpen your mind and declutter your thoughts, stimulating stronger focus and intentional problem-solving.
Mental wellness: Trauma-informed reactions can ignite your fight-or-flight response, which keeps your nervous system on overdrive. Somatic coaching is a body-oriented approach that builds deeper awareness of your physical and emotional responses to anxiety, allowing you to better identify and regulate stress.
Studies show that the somatic approach can even contribute to improving negative mental health symptoms.
Sense of balance: It’s normal to feel out of sorts every once in a while. After all, you juggle many roles and responsibilities at work and at home. But when instability becomes a normal part of life, it can have destructive impacts on your professional and personal growth.
Somatic coaching works to align your physical, emotional, and mental states so you can better allocate energy and focus, improving productivity and making you more adaptable to daily challenges.
Communication skills: It’s not what you say but how you say it. Much of your communication is non-verbal — your body cues your listener to the hidden meaning of your message.
Somatic practices build stronger access to the physical body, allowing you to express your feelings and emotions more effectively and identify others’ more accurately. Deeper interactions can have a snowball effect in strengthening your relationships, whether you’re building your community or working on being a better leader.
Absolutely. Somatic coaching digs deep into decision-making and behavioral patterns. By developing greater self-awareness, you can connect better to your work, deepen your relationships, and bolster productivity.
Here are a few examples of people who might benefit from somatic methodology in the workplace:
Somatic coaching revolves around several exercises to bridge the gap between the mind and the body. Here are a few somatic coaching techniques you can expect to encounter:
When your mind feels overwhelmed by negative memories, emotions, or intrusive thoughts, grounding techniques can bring you back to the present moment.
The practice helps you redirect and regulate your feelings, perhaps by distracting yourself with visual stimuli or transforming energy into a clenched fist. Grounding allows you to acknowledge negative energy and understand difficult experiences without losing control over your emotions.
You may lose control over your thoughts and emotions when you feel overwhelmed by negative feelings. Mindful breathing is a deep breathing exercise where you take big, controlled breaths.
Paying attention to air filling and leaving your body helps you clear your mind and relax. Breathing techniques calm you down in the moment, and regular practice can reduce your stress, squash negative self-talk, and improve sleep.
Reflecting on positive experiences can help you regulate your emotions and find calm in stressful situations. Savoring requires you to recall a memory from start to finish, reflecting on the people, emotions, and situations that filled you with joy.
You can use this somatic method to reminisce on past experiences, focus on positive feelings in the moment, and imagine an exciting future. While the practice requires more research, it may contribute to a higher quality of life and better resilience.
Somatic coaching requires serious self-reflection. Mind and bodywork exercises can empower you to think through the origins of your habits and understand the ideas that shape your decisions.
Finding the root cause of a thought process is the first step to rewriting your beliefs and building healthier frameworks. If you struggle to manage your time or stay engaged, moving backward can help you pinpoint the source of the problem and rebuild.
As part of your coaching experience, you may be assigned take-home activities to develop your mind-body connection. Here are a few examples:
The right coach makes you feel comfortable and understood. Don’t be afraid to reach out to multiple people and schedule multiple intake sessions until you find the one.
Pay close attention to these traits to determine if a coach is a match:
Learning about yourself is a life-long journey. But you don’t have to navigate it alone — a coach can offer you the guidance and support you need to connect with your innermost thoughts and desires.
The tools you pick up through somatic coaching will help you navigate changes in your personal and professional growth and stay in touch with yourself as you develop and change, even years later. Make time to take care of yourself, reframe your habits, and build the resilience you need to move through life with more intention.
Understand Yourself Better:
Big 5 Personality Test
Learn how to leverage your natural strengths to determine your next steps and meet your goals faster.Understand Yourself Better:
Big 5 Personality Test
Learn how to leverage your natural strengths to determine your next steps and meet your goals faster.Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships.
With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.
How it works
Products
Solutions
Customers
What is coaching?
Types of Coaching
Resources